Renteria Caps Remarkable Comeback In The 9th
Joe Strauss of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch
July 29, 2002
The improbable became the inspirational Sunday night at Busch Stadium when shortstop Edgar Renteria capped a six-run ninth inning with a one-out, three-run home run to give the Cardinals a 10-9 win over the Chicago Cubs before a delirious crowd of 47,583 at Busch Stadium.
Swinging at Antonio Alfonseca's 1-0 pitch, Renteria drove his fifth home run 412 feet into the visitors bullpen to reverse a game in which the Cardinals trailed 6-0 and 9-4.
Renteria, the National League's premier clutch hitter, received a prolonged standing ovation after acknowledging a curtain call. The blast not only salvaged a series against the Cardinals' rivals, it erased the bad taste from Matt Morris' troubled start and completed an uprising against the Cubs' porous bullpen. Dave Veres (4-6) earned the win in exchange for two innnings. The Cardinals stretched their lead to five games over the Cincinnati Reds in the National League Central.
Tom "Flash" Gordon couldn't retire any of three hitters he faced and closer Alfonseca was just as ineffective as the Cardinals scored twice before their first out.
Fernando Vina's leadoff infield single led to one run on pinch-hitter Miguel Cairo's double. Jim Edmonds followed with an RBI single to score Cairo, chase Gordon and bring on Alfonseca in a sudden save situation.
A walk to Albert Pujols brought J.D. Drew to the plate with the tying run. After Drew struck out, but after Tino Martinez's RBI single, Renteria mashed a fastball into the visitors bullpen. The six-run comeback was the Cardinals' second largest this season and marked only the third time they have won when trailing after eight innings.
Whether Morris was bothered by the night's oppressive heat, a stiff back or residue from Saturday's ejections of pitcher Mike Timlin and manager Tony La Russa, he did not resemble the pitcher who had dominated the San Francisco Giants in his previous two starts.
While Fred McGriff and Corey Patterson powered the beating, right fielder Sammy Sosa began a pair of two-out rallies against Morris by simply refusing to swing.
The Cardinals handle Sosa like a contagion even though his career numbers against the club, against Morris, and at Busch Stadium are unexceptional. They walked him five times in the teams' three-game series in May and wanted no part of him in a pair of two-out, bases-empty situations in Sunday's first three innings.
Morris began the game with a 14-inning scoreless streak, convincing back-to-back road wins and a 16-inning shutout streak against the Cubs.
The Cardinals ace was 2-0 with a 1.06 ERA in two previous starts against the Cubs this season after beating them three times in five starts last season. He also carried a career 7-2 record and 3.44 ERA against them into the game.
Sosa entered Sunday night hitting .222 this season against the Cardinals and as a career .211 hitter at Busch Stadium. He was hitting .265 with one home run in 34 lifetime at-bats against Morris, who hadn't surrendered a home run to him until May 8, which set off accusations of sign-stealing.
Nothing but bad followed each time Sosa walked. McGriff singled and left fielder Moises Alou doubled to score two runs in the first inning. The ponderous McGriff scored from first base by challenging the relay between right fielder J.D. Drew and second baseman Vina. Vina, who accepted a cortisone injection on Friday, managed little on a throw to the plate.
In the third inning McGriff and Alou singled before Patterson snapped a four-for-45 overall funk and two-for-12 career success against Morris with his ninth home run.
By the time Morris was lifted after four innings, the Cubs' 3-6 hitters were five for six with two walks, nine total bases and six runs scored.
The Cubs placed at least one baserunner via walk or error in the first five innings. Morris walked four hitters for the first time in 10 starts despite his shortest outing of the season. He allowed five hits, one more than in his 4-0 shutout over the Cubs on May 13.
Morris had failed to protect a 6-0 lead on June 30. This time, the Cardinals attempted to erase his 6-0 deficit after an infield error evicted Clement in the sixth inning. A parade of nine hitters against three pitchers produced four runs and put the tying run on second base before Kyle Farnsworth escaped on a double-play grounder by pinch-hitter Eduardo Perez.
Cubs manager Bruce Kimm tried to use lefthander Jeff Fassero behind Clement; however, Fassero was so ineffective he was pulled after four hitters in favor of the righthander Farnsworth with lefthanded hitters Kerry Robinson and Vina approaching.
Robinson walked to load the bases, then Vina flared a single to right field that Sosa dove for but lost off the heel of his glove.
Scoreless innings by Mike Matthews and Mike Crudale preceded an eventful seventh from Steve Kline, who surrendered a two-run seventh inning thanks to the lefthanded-hitting Patterson's double, a walk of lefthanded-hitting Delino DeShields, a single by No. 8 hitter Todd Hundley and Farnsworth's well-driven sacrifice fly.
The Cubs finished their damage in the eighth against Veres when the first hitter he faced, third baseman Bill Mueller, drove a pitch to the right-field warning track. There, Drew extended for the ball but only managed to deflect it over the wall for Mueller's fourth home run.
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